Entertainment

Kelly Clarkson's Album Sales Down After Ron Paul Twitter Endorsement

Although sales for Kelly Clarkson’s new album "Stronger" experienced a jump on Amazon last week following news that she endorsed GOP hopeful Ron Paul on Twitter, it wasn’t enough to help overall sales for the week. In fact, according to a Nielson Soundscan report, her album sales were actually 40% lower than the week before.

The "Miss Independent" singer sold only 25,000 copies of “Stronger” for the week ending Sunday, January 1, compared to 41,000 copies sold the previous week.

Although the album did climb to No. 17 from No. 39 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Billboardreported that other albums experienced a greater decline in sales as shoppers cut back on spending the week after Christmas. The overall album market dropped 49% that week.

However, Clarkson’s digital sales increased 232%, helped largely by the Apple iTunes Store, but Billboard credited the jump to heavy promotion on the iTunes homepage for “Stronger,” which was listed at a discounted price. The site also touted an exclusive "iTunes Session" EP released on December 27.

"Stronger" was also featured last Friday on Amazon’s Movers and Shakers page, which highlights its biggest gainers in sales rank over the past 24 hours. Amazon noted that sales for the album had jumped up over 400% in the past day. The news of the album sales boost occurred after Clarkson’s Ron Paul endorsement on Twitter spread throughout the Web.

"I love Ron Paul. I liked him a lot during the last Republican nomination and no one gave him a chance. If he wins the nomination for the Republican party in 2012 he’s got my vote. Too bad he probably won’t," she tweeted last Wednesday.

Although some supported the singer by writing comments on the Amazon page for her album and by following her on Twitter, not everyone was happy about her tweet. Her message received backlash across Twitter, as some of her longtime fans stopped following the original American Idol winner and others accused her of supporting racism. (Newsletters published in Paul’s name in the 1980s and 1990s included some racist sentiments. However, he recently deemed the comments “terrible” and said someone else wrote them). Some people on Twitter also attacked her because they believe Paul supports the death penalty and opposes same-sex marriage.

Clarkson later clarified on Twitter that she does not support racism and the death penalty, and took to her WhoSay page to address the controversy.

"Man, my eyes have been opened to so much hate tonight," Clarkson wrote. "If y'all ever disagree with something I say, please don't feel the need to attack me. I will listen to what you say and any articles or viewpoints you have when you say it with respect. Being hateful is not a healthy way to get people to see or hear you."

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post said that some Twitter users blasted Clarkson for endorsing a candidate that supports the death penalty and opposes same-sex marriage. However, Ron Paul feels these are issues best resolved at the state level. The above text has been modified to reflect that. We regret the error.

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